Are there really aliens in the universe? Most people may have no doubts about this, after all, the universe is such a vast unknown world. So, have aliens really visited the earth on UFO (unidentified flying object)? This is probably an unknown mystery. However, in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton publicly stated that he believed that UFOs had been to the United States and that the U.S. Air Force had captured UFOs. Hillary even promised to the Americans that if she can be successfully elected as the new president of the United States, she will send an investigation team to the “Area 51” of the United States (a secret U.S. military base where aliens are said to have been hidden here) to explore UFOs. the truth.
Hillary mentioned UFOs and aliens in the campaign, did he just do it randomly? actually not. Recently, Americans’ interest in UFO and alien abductions seems to be on the rise. For example, in 2015, a poll conducted by Ipsos Group (one of the world’s top ten survey companies) showed that 45% of Americans believe that aliens have visited the earth. At the same time, the classic sci-fi TV shows in the 1990s, such as “X-Files” and Fox’s sci-fi comedy “Anatomy of Aliens”, have also begun to re-broadcast in prime time. After all, Hillary’s concern about UFOs may only be concerned with her own votes, because if Hillary Clinton is going to disclose the secrets of “Area 51”, she will win the support of the majority of American science fiction fans in the campaign.
However, although Americans’ interest in UFOs is increasing again, a survey conducted by Gallup Consulting shows that in the first 10 years of the 21st century, Americans’ interest in UFOs has gradually weakened. In 2001, 33% of Americans believed that aliens had already visited the earth. In 2005, this number dropped to 24%. In addition, history shows that since the so-called modern flying saucer science was created in 1947, Americans’ interest in UFOs has always experienced the repetition between “popularity” and “unpopularity.” Social psychologists believe that behind this phenomenon are actually social, political and psychological reasons.
Early UFO boom
On June 24, 1947, when a pilot named Kenneth Arnold was driving a plane over Mount Rainier, Washington, he saw nine luminous objects moving quickly in a queue. The media jokingly called it a “flying saucer.” . A few weeks later, the “Daily News” in Roseville, New Mexico, USA published a sensational piece of news: “The Air Force found a flying saucer in Roseville.” This news was immediately reprinted by the “New York Times” and other major newspapers. There was an uproar among the Americans. People rushed to New Mexico in the southern United States from all directions, and the government had to dispatch troops to stop the flow of people. In order to explain the flying saucer phenomenon, scientists announced that U-FO will become an important scientific research topic-modern flying saucer science was born.
Under the infection of scientists, the United States had its first UFO boom. By the end of 1947, Americans had reported more than 850 UFO sightings. After the 1950s, the idea that aliens had visited the earth became more and more popular. At this time, the media began to report some news about human contact with aliens. What is interesting is that these news are often pornographic.
For example, the first person reported by the Americans to be kidnapped by a UFO was a technician in California. His name was Truman Besium. Bexum claimed that he was taken to a spacecraft from the planet “Clarion”, which is located in the distant Orion constellation, a planet dominated by humans. According to Besium himself, the captain of the spaceship is a beautiful woman named Ola Renis. While staying in the spacecraft, he fell in love with Rennis, which led to his wife and his divorce. In addition, there are “abductees” who said that they were taken on a spaceship and forced to reproduce offspring with female aliens.
Psychologists and sociologists have interpreted the UFO boom that first appeared in Americans. Carl Jung, a famous American psychoanalyst, believes that the blowout reported by UFO is to help Americans adapt to the pressure brought about by the Cold War and dispel the fear brought about by the Cold War. At this time, the US government during the Cold War had always suspected that the Soviets would create some messy flying objects to monitor the US military bases. Therefore, the US intelligence agencies asked the public to report all the unusual things they saw.
In addition, in the middle of the last century, American social customs are changing rapidly, and this change is particularly obvious in areas such as race, gender, and sexual orientation. According to the historian Scott Poole, the reason why people spread the affair about aliens may be talking about changes in social climate through another way. For example, in 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court finally publicly declared that “intermarriage of different races was legal”, and then the U.S. media broke the “Hill couple abduction incident.” According to the incident, the black Barney Hill and his white wife Betty Hill were kidnapped by alien creatures in New Hampshire. While talking about the alien abduction incident, the Americans also The problem of race marriage.
Scientific reason once killed UFO
In the 1950s, American reports of UFO and alien abduction were flooded. Although most of them were catch-ups and their authenticity was very suspicious, the US government and air force were very serious about these reports. From 1952 to 1969, the US government began to organize a series of studies on UFO.
In 1952, the U.S. Air Force established the “Blue Book Project” to investigate U-FO. The project was led by the famous American physicist Edward Condon. More than 30 scientists participated in the research and tracking of UFOs. In 1969, Condon announced the results of the investigation-the Condon Report. The report stated that scientists had studied a total of 12,618 reports on UFOs, but most of the reports simply misidentified natural phenomena (such as clouds, stars, etc.) or They are ordinary flying objects, and some are false reports. Only 701 (about 6%) can be classified as unexplained. Therefore, most UFO reports are nonsense, and continued research is meaningless. Based on this report, the US Congress terminated all funding for UFO research projects.
In this regard, religious scientist Darryl Catlin believes that there are other reasons for the U-FO fever that the US government suppresses. In her book “The Haunted Place”, Darryl explained, “The American people were very irrational at the time, which caused a headache for the American government. At that time, various civil rights riots and large-scale hippie rallies occurred from time to time. This kind of anti-war demonstrations and protest rallies spread throughout the country, so Washington has given high official support to science and rationality.” In addition, because scientists continue to treat sleep paralysis (a type of sleep disorder) from the perspective of scientific rationality. The state of being half-awake, and there are various hallucinations, and even the surrounding sounds can be heard. Many UFO events are fabricated in this way) and the brain’s false memory have been explained, and people have begun to treat them with a more rational perspective. UFO.
As authoritative scholars and academic institutions in the United States began to take a negative attitude towards UFOs, UFOs became a “shame of the academic world” after the 1970s. For example, Condon advocated that teachers should not encourage students to read books about UFOs, which he believed would seriously harm students’ scientific thinking ability and judgment. For another example, in 1973, the National Aeronautics and Astronautics Association investigated the attitudes of university faculty towards UFO and found that most faculty members held a negative attitude.
The return of science and rationality has caused some Americans to resent UFO reports and call it “pseudoscience.” For example, in the 1990s, John Mark, a psychiatrist at Harvard University, out of interest, often went to look for “abductees” who claimed to have been in close contact with aliens, and called on TV shows that these “abducted” The story of “Zhe” should be taken seriously, and Americans should also believe in the existence of UFOs. These behaviors made Mark once become a symbol of “the shame of UFO research.” His Harvard Medical School launched an investigation into Mark’s research work. In the United States, for tenured professors like Mark, this kind of investigation is unprecedented. However, Harvard University did not pursue it, because soon, the “weathervane” of UFO began to change again.
Feng Shui turns
After the 1990s, UFOs have made a comeback. In 1990, a poll conducted by Gallup Consulting showed that 27% of Americans still believe in UFOs. This number rose to 33% in 2001. During the period, the story of UFO and alien abduction became the main content of some TV shows (such as “X-Files” and “Men in Black”) and best-selling books. “World News Weekly” even circulated the adoption of Hillary Clinton. The gossip of alien babies.
Why didn’t science and reason completely kill Americans’ trust in UFOs? Sociologists point out that this is because UFO skepticism is hindered by a different kind of social thought, which is called “re-enchantment”, which means returning to the mystery and uncertainty of knowledge. Sociologists argue that although science can temporarily suppress people’s belief in mysterious powers, this belief is a need rooted in the human soul and will return sooner or later.
At the same time, some Americans have begun to use the cloak of science to pack the mysterious power of religion. For example, some Christian sects believe in millennialism, that is, believing that God will bring a golden age of unification to mankind in the future, the earth will become heaven and mankind will prosper. But in what form does the power of God appear? Many American Christians believe that benevolent aliens will use highly developed technology to save mankind. The cult organization “Gate of Heaven” is an extreme example. Its followers believe that UFOs do exist. They claim to be aliens who descended to the earth. God sent them to ask people to save mankind. Its leader, Apple White, declared that the human body is just a container or carrier that can be discarded. Any believer who follows them must get rid of the fetters of the world. As long as the congregation abandons their bodies, they can board aliens to welcome them. The spacecraft flew away from the earth and entered heaven… On March 26, 1997, 38 cultists and leaders of “Heaven’s Gate” committed suicide collectively, shocking the world.
After entering the new century, the public’s interest in U-FO has declined again, and observations and reports have decreased. In 2001, the famous UFO amateur group “British UFO” disbanded. Soon, two more planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, and no one cared about the aliens anymore. In addition, the Internet is also helping Americans “drive away” UFOs, because the convenient exchange of information and opinions has given UFO skeptics the upper hand.
So now, why is the UFO “wind” starting to blow again? On the one hand, the cycle of “disenchantment” and “re-enchantment” has once again come to the side of “re-enchantment”; on the other hand, a similar cycle may be emerging in the socio-political field. Today, global ethnic and religious conflicts have intensified, the climate and ecological environment have deteriorated, economic growth has been weak, and political turmoil has caused many people to find comfort in UFOs. Therefore, Hillary Clinton chose to value UFOs-this will no longer give her a bad reputation as “pseudo-science”, but will narrow the distance between her and the voters.
